Experiencing Emotion in Conducting Qualitative Research as a PhD Student

Russ Vince

doi:10.1177/1052562920910170

Abstract

This article explores doctoral students’ emotional experience as they learn about conducting qualitative research. Emotions emerging from a shared learning experience provided doctoral students with opportunities to reflect on their experience as qualitative researchers and on the practice of qualitative research. Explicit links are made between students’ learning how to do research and their research as learning, to provide an example of experiential and engaged teaching practice within a doctoral program in management. A study of a module on qualitative research focused on the emotional experience of being a doctoral student, captured a range of emotions, and offered students the opportunity to understand the importance and value of emotional reflexivity within their qualitative research.

Highlights

In this article, I explore doctoral students’ emotional experience as they learn about conducting qualitative research
Self-reflexive inquiry into emotions mobilized by a shared learning experience provides doctoral students with insights about the role of qualitative researchers and the practice of qualitative research as well as generating data for this study
The article contributes to our understanding of doctoral students’ individual and collective emotional experience as researchers, which I believe should be a persistent theme of doctoral education in Business and Management Schools

Summary

Introduction

I explore doctoral students’ emotional experience as they learn about conducting qualitative research. The article contributes to our understanding of doctoral students’ individual and collective emotional experience as (early-career) researchers, which I believe should be a persistent theme of doctoral education in Business and Management Schools This is important because doctoral students too often ignore their own emotions as self-reflexive data in qualitative research; and because Business and Management Schools can encourage doctoral students to engage more directly with the relationship between their learning how to do research and their “research as learning” (Vince, 1995). Engaging with emotional experience opens up the possibility for self-reflexivity, deepening analysis of the complexities of students’ lived experience as researchers as an integral part of research These themes are developed in the Discussion and Conclusion section

Objectives

Conclusion